Tag Archives: struggle

This is you a year from now, like the ghost of medical school future… So please don’t freak out!Congratulations on finishing the first week of medical school without a total breakdown, we won’t count the mini breakdown after the “introduction to chemistry lecture”… And no you still don’t fully understand what a mole is, nor will you ever really!

Welcome to what is going to be the most intense, insane, enjoyable and life affirming year of your life! You will meet some amazing people, you will get utterly confused and your little heart will flutter, you lose all your confidence and then you will gain it back… Enjoy the ride while it lasts!

So back to medical school and actually studying, you will panic, you will not understand 90% of the lectures for the first month and a half(and many more after that), but trust me when I say IT GETS BETTER! Just keep plodding along like you always have done, this year really is a marathon not a sprint.

And on the marathon note…No you will not run 5k, you will even learn that running for the bus isn’t really worth it – Your mantra of not running unless being chased, will still firmly be in place

You will go on some a lot of nights out and subsequently after one of them you will turn up to a dissection session hungover… And let me tell you now, it doesn’t end well! So please can you just not drink those cheap samba shots. You will thank future me and the toilet later.

Also please don’t fall asleep on the tube on the way to work and then blame it on Captain Morgan and his ship of spiced rum… You will have a horrific day and then your boss will hate you. This is guess is more just general life adviceAround Christmas things will start making sense and you will pass your first exam very well and it will give you a boost of confidence you desperately needed!

After Christmas the work load will increase, but don’t panic and focus on what you need to know now and do not panic about exam content tested in July. Go to the library and work at your own pace, don’t feel pushed into lectures you don’t want to be in

But please please please ask for help! (more life advice) If you need help ask for it- Which, will be on many occasions, also don’t be scared or worried that other people are working a million miles faster than you at the start, they will help you! And by the end of the year you will be caught up with them!

Also, it is so easily to get caught in a medical bubble, please make sure to deal with stuff as it happens and not leave it all until the summer, you will break a little and it will just explode, and it will be messy. You know what you’re like, please don’t bottle it all up!You will owe James your whole first year, you 2 will become unlikely very good friends and study partners working together 6 days a week, eating many a Sainsbury’s ready meal in the GEP room. Enjoy it, you will realise this is the best way for you to revise and that actually all those notes you wrote were semi-usless.

So I know a lot of this just sounds like gobble-di-gook… But you will understand what I mean as the year goes on… However, here are 10 top tips to survive this year from me, well you but in the future:

1. Study consistently, don’t let a topic you don’t understand sit there. Take your time and look over it!

2. You don’t have to follow what everyone else does, if you want to go study alone to understand the kidney… DO IT. Don’t sit in a lecture and get angry because you don’t understand it.

3. Keep your sense of humour… Luckily you don’t lose yours

4. Ask for help– I think this is the most important one. If you are struggling in anything whether it be studying, mentally or just something in your life ask for help, talk to someone… It will make everything so much better!

5. Take any opportunity you have and run with it. You will be offered amazing opportunities, make the most of them!

6. Call your parents and old friends more… you will get lost in this medic bubble and then realise it’s been 4 weeks without speaking to someone outside of your London bubble of medicine

7. Chill out every now and again and enjoy life! It is so hard to get caught up in studying to not enjoy yourself. Go on that date, take a weekend off to hang out with friends (Triple check) or go visit the parentals for some well needed TLC

8. Make a good impressions with staff, it will go a long way and help massively when getting jobs and stuff done!

9. You will look at 18 year olds and go “really was I like this”… well apart from using the penis shaped beer bong in the SU, you were a little… But there will be some good ones in amongst that bunch!

10. Think of witty remarks to use when people question your undergraduate degree. You will always get asked what you did first before medicine being a GEP, when you say disaster management you will get one of 3 responses… learn to embrace the wankers who ask “How is that a real degree”

But chuck, well done!! You do actually PASS the year, and you exceed your expectations by far getting a 63% average… well done! and please please please remember about the samba shots